TORONTO, Canada (CelebrityAccess) — The CBC has fired Canadian broadcaster and musician Jian Ghomeshi after allegations of sexual assault and harassment from multiple women came to light. As well, Ghomeshi's representation, The Agency Group also announced on Friday that it had ended their relationship with the performer.
A spokesperson for the CBC told the Toronto Star that the decision to end Ghomeshi's association with the broadcaster was made after what was described as graphic evidence that Ghomeshi had “caused physical injury to a woman,” was made available.
“After viewing this graphic evidence we determined that Jian’s conduct was a fundamental breach of CBC’s standard of acceptable conduct for any employee,” an internal CBC memo obtained by The Toronto Star said. “[Ghomeshi] was likely to bring the reputation of his fellow employees and CBC into disrepute and could not be defended by the CBC.”
Nine different women have leveled claims of abuse against Ghomeshi, including allegations that he choked, sexually harrassed, pulled on their hair or struck them.
In a lengthy post on his Facebook page, Ghomeshi claims that his actions were consensual and has filed a lawsuit against the CBC seeking $55 million for defamation and breach of trust. As of the time of publication of this article, Ghomeshi is not under any criminal investigation.
Ghomeshi was a well known broadcaster on CBC Radio and formerly hosted the daily arts program Q on CBC Radio One. Ghomeshi also hosted television programming as well, including a three year stint as the pop culture news magazine >play. – Staff Writers
